The present invention is related to tow hitch devices and more particularly to a ball hitch device having quick detachable, interchangeable ball hitch connectors.
Ball and socket hitch connectors are some of the most popular and widely used devices for connecting a vehicle to be towed, such as a trailer, to a towing vehicle, such as a car, truck or tractor. A conventional ball and socket type hitch usually includes a spherical body or ball hitch connector that is adapted for attachment to a draw bar or tow bar of a towing vehicle. The tongue or hitch of the trailer or other vehicle to be towed is equipped with a socket adapted to fit over the spherical body or ball hitch connector and includes movable and lockable jaws adapted to tighten under the spherical body to prevent the socket from being removed therefrom during towing operations. Such ball and socket hitch devices are relatively safe; they are easy to connect and disconnect, and they provide a hitch connection in which the tongue or hitch of the towed vehicle can pivot to a considerable extent in any plane about the hitch connection point.
Notwithstanding the popularity and wide acceptance of such ball and socket hitches for towing vehicles, there remains some heretofore unresolved problems with their use. One of the most pervasive and aggrevating problems arises from the fact that the size of the spherical, ball-shaped body of the ball hitch connector has to be matched rather closely with the size of the socket on the hitch or tongue of the vehicle to be towed. If the ball connector is too large for the socket, the socket will simply not fit over the ball connector and the trailer cannot be connected to the towing vehicle. On the other hand, if the spherical ball connector is too small for the socket, it might not be possible to get a secure connection of the socket to the ball connector. A severe safety hazard could result from such an insecure or ineffective connection of the trailer to the towing vehicle. Unfortunately, because of strength requirements, and in many instances purely arbitrary decisions, trailer manufacturers equip their trailers with a variety of different sized sockets. Therefore, in order to use the same towing vehicle to tow different trailers, the ball connector on the towing vehicle often must be changed to a different size.
Changing conventional ball connectors attached to tow bars of towing vehicles is not always an easy task, and it often requires large wrenches or other tools. If such tools are not available to the person at the time the ball hitch has to be changed, such a change is almost impossible. Further, it is not unusal for the bolts used to attach ball hitch connectors to tow bars of vehicles to become severly damaged due to dragging on pavement, rocks and the like when the vehicle is driven through dips or over rough roads. When such damage occurs, removal of the ball connectors can be a very difficult task even with the proper tools available.